In some “time-of-flight” LIDAR applications, a laser beam is projected towards objects in a surrounding environment, and a reflection of that laser beam is detected and analyzed to determine some properties of the objects.
In some other LIDAR applications, projecting the laser beam repeatedly around the whole horizon (i.e. along an azimuth angular span of 360°) was found useful to analyze a surrounding scene.
To do so, an example of a conventional laser projector is used. The conventional laser projector makes use of a fixed reflector set at a given elevation angle relative to the horizon. A typical elevation angle is 0°. The reflector is then rotated about a vertical axis at a rotation speed using a motor so that the pointing direction of the projected laser beam rotates to cover the horizon in a manner similar to that of the rotating light of a beacon.
Although existing laser projectors are satisfactory to a given degree, there remains room for improvement, especially in LIDAR applications wherein projecting optical beams at more than one elevation angle is necessary.